The Vine

 “Abide in me as I abide in you.  Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches.”   John 15:4-5

 The gospel of John is very different from the other three gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke.   Matthew, Mark and Luke are called the “synoptic gospels.”  Synoptic is a word that means “common view.” Matthew, Mark and Luke share a common view, a common outline and many of the same stories about Jesus.  But John is different – very different.  94% of the gospel of John does not appear in Matthew, Mark or Luke.  John stands alone.  It is only in the gospel of John that appear the “I am” sayings of Jesus, rich, yet very down-to-earth metaphorical self-descriptions:

             “I am the light of the world.”   “I am the bread of life.”  “I am the door of the sheep.”  “I am the good shepherd.”  I am the way, and the truth and the life.”  “I am the resurrection and the life.”  And in today’s passage we hear him say, “I am the vine, you are the branches.” 

 “I am the vine, you are the branches.”    

 I believe that  this passage, at least in part,  is a metaphor about Christian community.

 “I am the vine, you are the branches.”    

There is much talk these days about community, especially the disintegration of "community," and no wonder.

            High mobility and corporate downsizing rip people out of neighborhoods and communities and move people around like nomads.

            One in two marriages break up, often leaving behind disillusioned children who are ill-prepared when it comes to having the tools to cultivate intimate commitment and community.  You see, a marriage and a family are designed to be communities of the most intimate expression. 

            I don’t know what it is like in your neighborhood, but in our town-home development there is little sense of community. People don’t know each other and apparently have little desire to know each other.  Other than a greeting at the mail boxes we know little or nothing about one another. 

            We teach our children to be self-reliant and independent, but in contrast we spend little time teaching them the art and skills of living in a community.

But at the same time, Internet chat rooms are standing-room-only. Why?  It is because we yearn for a place of belonging.  We hunger for community.  We long for connectedness.  In the last 7 or 8 years, about 30% of the weddings I have performed have been couples who originally met in an Internet Chat Room or Internet Matching Service.  Tired of the bar and night club scene they opted for an alternative way to connect with another on a deeper level. 

We look and reach out to one another, but often don’t really know how, or we reach out in ways that do not nurture community and intimacy, trust and commitment.  We live in a culture that mistakes sex as the principle means to look deeply into another person’s soul. 

We desperately need and long for deep connectedness with others. But we seem to be so incompetent at finding it.  We desire it, perhaps more than anything else, but mere desire and longing is not enough, for unfulfilled yearning can lead to frustration, loneliness and even despair. 

Enter Jesus and his self-descriptive metaphor, “I am the vine, you are the branches.”

The vine is the central stem and the branches emanate from the vine.  The vine is the core, the branches are the periphery.  It is through the vine that the branches are nourished, produce fruit and have life.  Together, vine and branches, in relationship, integrated, make up the whole dynamic living thing, “I am the vine, you are the branches.”

 Perhaps nothing has grieved me more over my thirty years of ministry than the fragmentation and disintegration of community - whether the community is a marriage, a family, a friendship, or a congregation.   I have experience nothing more grievous and hurtful.

 This morning I am looking out upon a community – the community of Holy Love Lutheran Church.  I look out, and I see smaller communities within the larger community.  I see communities of couples, families, ministry teams, and friendships.  How is our community doing?   How is your community doing – your community within the community?

 This is not a perfect community as not are any of the smaller communities within the bigger one.  There are going to be times we will disappoint each other and get caught up in conflict. We will disagree with each other on a variety of issues and things.  We will let each other down and even inflict some kind of pain upon each other in the normal course of our life together. 

 This doesn’t surprise and shock me in any way whatsoever. There are no perfect people here today. There is no perfect community.   This room is filled with sinners this morning.  To be a Christian Community does not mean we are not going to have our conflicts and problems.  The litmus test of a Christian community is not whether or not we will have our struggles and estrangements.  We will, just like any community. 

 The litmus test of a Christian community is what happens after conflict and pain occurs.  The litmus test of Christian Community is what we do after estrangement occurs. 

 Did you notice the blue tape on the sanctuary carpet this morning?  It runs from the back up the center aisle all the way to the front; and then another piece running perpendicular crossing the other all across the front. It’s a cross.  Imagine we had a cross so large that we could lay it down in this sanctuary this morning. 

 Placed in such a way, notice that no matter where you are in the sanctuary you would not be very far from the cross.  In fact, if we had a cross so large everyone here could gather around it, and we could pick it up.  We would have to line up along its edges and each take a section in our arms standing side-by-side.  We would then lift all at once.  We could then place it on our shoulders, and at that moment, metaphorically speaking, the cross would be come the vine; we would be the branches; the lifting of the cross would be the fruit – a living metaphor of the Christian community. 

 “I am the vine, you are the branches,” says Jesus.  

 When something hurtful happens in this Christian community, or the community of your marriage or your family, or the community of a close friendship or ministry team and you are involved, do you see the situation and the other person through the vine of Jesus Christ?

 Do you relate to others through the vine of Jesus Christ?  Picture our imaginary giant cross, held over our shoulders – running down the middle of our fellowship.  It is Jesus Christ who brings us together and holds us together as branches.

 When it comes to this community, do we bear the fruit of forgiveness and reconciliation when it is needed?  Do we bear the fruits of the Spirit that Paul so aptly describes in Galatians:  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control – almost all of which are interpersonal and community building qualities?

   “I am the vine, you are the branches,” says Jesus.  

 I was thinking this week that mother’s, in most family systems, are good examples of what it means to be the vine. Mothers are usually the ones concerned about things like harmony, fairness, and reconciliation – right relationship between the members of the family.  Mothers are nurturer’s and mothers work tirelessly attending to the needs of each individual in the family community often at great personal sacrifice, putting the needs of the whole ahead of personal needs and considerations.

 As many mothers are to their families, so Jesus is even more so to the community of faith. 

 “Abide in me, as I abide in you.  I am the vine, you are the branches,” says Jesus.  

 The word “abide” literally means “to dwell with.”  A contemporary translation might be “to hang out with.”   Jesus quite literally “hung on” a cross so that we might be able to “hang out with” him and he with us.  When the fabric of fellowship tears, when conflict or hurt rule the day, do we turn to the one who hung on the cross; whose cross runs down the middle of our fellowship; the cross that is the vine and we are the branches?

 This community of faith and all of its smaller components are designed to draw life and nurture from Jesus Christ and his cross.  By grace through faith he abides in us and we in him, and in so abiding we become his disciples, and by His grace and power bear the fruit of God’s love.   Amen.